Modern Crime: The Weird Tale of A Fake Bomb and a Would-Be-Terrorist

Ever since The ATF pulled off their now infamous debacle called “Fast and Furious” resulting in (among other things) a Border Patrol agents death, I  have been extremely skeptical of any Local, State or Federal Law Enforcement operation that willingly puts WEAPONS into the hands of criminals and/or terrorist for the express intent of “following the bread crumbs”…but if you thought “Fast and Furious” was a cluster-fu#K, read about this goat rodeo the FBI pulled off in Miami recently…if you are like me once you are about halfway through this article you will come to the conclusion that Federal Law Enforcement has it’s head firmly inserted up it’s own ass and has no problem with it staying there for the immediate future. As a side-note this is also the first time I have ever heard of a “Mexican Islamic Terrorist”..wow, what a combo. -SF

The FBI says it caught a terrorist trying to blow up a synagogue on the outskirts of Miami.

But the FBI supplied the bomb.

The device was fake, part of an undercover FBI sting operation that, like hundreds of controversial investigations before it, used an undercover informant to target an alleged terrorist.

In the Miami case, federal authorities accuse 40-year-old James Medina of planning to bomb the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center north of the city.

The FBI started their investigation of Medina in March 2015 “based on his suspected desire to attack” the Jewish center, according to an affidavit filed in federal court and a statementreleased by the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida.

Medina, who said he converted to Islam four years ago and referred to his alias “James Muhammad” in court, has been charged with “attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.” He pleaded not guilty on Monday morning.

Apart from the fact that the FBI supplied Medina with the weapon that he intended to use against the Jewish center, rights activists and legal experts are troubled by the facts presented by the FBI and Justice Department. Their concern includes instances where the informant, or “confidential human source” in bureau parlance, offered to assist Medina in attacking the center, and even suggested that he link the attack to the Islamic State.

The FBI’s affidavit — which reveals only enough information to justify the criminal complaint against Medina, and does not include all of the evidence against him — says that an informant met with Medina in March and secretly recorded conversations with him after he expressed a desire to attack the Jewish center.

But the affidavit does not say how the FBI learned of Medina’s “suspected desire” to attack the Jewish center, or what initial remarks or actions led agents to believe that Medina was willing to use violence before he devised his plans with the informant.

David Shapiro, a former New Jersey prosecutor and FBI special agent who is now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said the affidavit makes it appear that the FBI did more than a little pushing to get Medina to develop the synagogue bombing plan.

“It seems this desire was developed,” he said. “It was watered with very potent fertilizer.”

Read the Remainder at Vice News

Espionage Files: Russian Spies Put Full-Court Press on Sweden

The Swedish state security police, or SAPO, is getting pretty worried about a dramatic uptick in Russian espionage activity in Sweden, according to leaks in the Swedish press. And SAPO is hinting that it’s related to the fact that Sweden is gearing up for a May 25 parliamentary debate about ratifying a “Host Nation Support Agreement” that would make it easier for NATO troops to use Swedish territory, ports, and bases in exercises or emergencies.

SAPO sources have told the Swedish press that “Russia has tried to influence the debate on Sweden’s security policy choices through public statements,” and that this overt activity has been matched by an increase in covert activity. Although SAPO is shying away from making lots of specific statements — charges of espionage are extremely politically sensitive — it has indicated that it’s tracked people affiliated with Russian intelligence services participating in conferences aimed at blocking further Swedish cooperation with NATO.

This is part of a longer-term increase in the aggressiveness of Russian posturing toward Sweden.On March 19, two days after SAPO released its unclassified annual report, which detailed Russian psychological and disinformation campaigns, Swedish media were hit with a massive cyberattack; the “distributed denial of service” attack blocked the sites of seven major Swedish newspapers.

This year’s SAPO report also asserts that members of Russia’s civilian overseas intelligence service (SVR) and military intelligence service (GRU) have been active in carrying out an aggressive reconnaissance of civilian and military infrastructure. Last year’s report identified 10 SVR and GRU officers among the 37 Russian diplomats in Sweden; this year’s report notes an increase in contacts with Swedish radical right-wing organizations.

Read the Remainder at Vice News

Cartel Corner #78: The Rise of Mexican Black Tar Heroin

As the rate of opioid addiction has surged in the United States, Mexico has become the world’s third-largest producer of opium used to process heroin. Mexican cartels are now the primary suppliers of the drug to the US, producing a crude and unrefined form known as black tar.

VICE News travels to the fertile mountains of western Mexico, where we see the beginning of the path black tar heroin takes to the US on plantations growing poppies used to make opium. We then head across the US border to witness the human cost there of the lucrative but destructive heroin trade.

Read the Original Article at Vice News

Crusader Corner: ISIS “Fighters” in Action or a Chinese Fire Drill? You Be the Judge.

I suppose we should be thankful these IS goat humpers kill more of their own fighters during a firefight than anyone else. Wow. Amazing they have gotten as far as they have. -SF

New footage claiming to show Islamic State fighters in battle reveals confusion and retreat as they take on Kurdish peshmerga troops in northern Iraq.

Vice News says the video was taken from the headcam of an IS fighter killed in March during a battle some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the city of Mosul, which has since June 2014 been in Islamic State hands.

Vice does not elaborate on how it came to acquire the footage.

In the video, a handful of fighters dressed in some form of sand-colored uniform are seen inside a military vehicle, scrambling to find the correct weaponry as they engage the peshmerga.

“Pass me another rocket,” says one. “A rocket, a rocket.”

The video then shows a hand reaching down to locate the rocket among a collection of bags, guns and other miscellaneous clutter.

Read the Remainder at Times of Israel

 

Modern Crime: The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking

Diplomats and top officials from governments around the world gathered last week at United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss what to do about the global drug problem. Over the course of four days and multiple discussions, the assembled dignitaries vowed to take a more comprehensive approach to the issue than in years past — but they also decided to keep waging the war on drugs.

The “outcome document” adopted during the UN General Assembly’s special session (UNGASS) calls for countries to “prevent and counter” drug-related crime by disrupting the “illicit cultivation, production, manufacturing, and trafficking” of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other substances banned by international law. The document also reaffirmed the UN’s “unwavering commitment” to “supply reduction and related measures.”

Yet according to the UN’s own data, the supply-oriented approach to fighting drug trafficking has been a failure of epic proportions. Last May, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued its 2015 World Drug Report, which shows that — despite billions of dollars spent trying to eradicate illicit crops, seize drug loads, and arrest traffickers — more people than ever before are getting high.

The UNODC conservatively estimated that in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, 246 million people worldwide, or 1 out of 20 individuals between the ages of 15 and 64, used an illicit drug, an increase of 3 million people over the previous year. More alarmingly, 27 million people were characterized as “problem drug users.” Only one out of every six of these problem users had access to any sort of addiction treatment.

Meanwhile, at a UN roundtable on drug-related crime and money laundering last week, the agenda noted that while drug treaties remain unchanged, organized crime has kept pace with the expansion of the global economy: “Advances in technology, transport, and travel have added to the fluid efficiency and speed of the global economy. They also offer similar efficiencies to the business of trafficking networks.”

In other words, globalization has led to an explosion of drug trafficking. More than 420 million shipping containers traverse the seas every year, transporting 90 percent of the world’s cargo. Most carry legitimate goods, but authorities cannot inspect them all, and some are used to smuggle drugs — or just as importantly, the chemicals used to make meth and cheaply process coca leaves and opium poppies into cocaine and heroin. Airplanes, submarines, speedboats, trucks, tunnels — taken as a whole, the systems used to move illegal drugs around the world comprise a logistics network likely bigger than Amazon, FedEx, and UPS combined.

Precisely how all of that illicit cargo moves around the globe is constantly shifting. New routes evolve as authorities crack down, laws evolve, wars erupt, and the climate changes. During UNGASS, VICE News spoke with UNODC officials from Mexico and Southeast Asia, as well as with independent experts on organized crime in Latin America, to learn about the latest trends determining how drugs are smuggled around the globe.

We also culled information from the aforementioned UNODC report, the US State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy report, the White House’s reporton National Drug Control Strategy, and a variety of other sources.

This is what we learned about today’s golden age of drug trafficking.

Read the Remainder at Vice News